Ring in the New Year with Lakeland Winery! Stop by and get 20 percent off when you buy a case of wine, and get a free tasting of our red Rosso Fortissimo and sauvignon blanc, Arabian Desert. Now through Sunday.

It’s the beginning of November and that means the holidays are right around the corner. Get started now with your custom wine holiday gifts by booking a winemaking appointment with us today. You can book your appointment here. Of course, you don’t want to forget the Thanksgiving-table wine. Stock up on your favorites to go along with the turkey!

Blueberries, pomegranates, black cherries and grapes aren’t the only wine varieties. Sometimes a vegetable will work too. Rhubarb might not be the first thing you’d think of for wine, but this sweet plant is perfect for it. And Here We are has a delicious-sounding, easy-to-follow recipe right here: Rhubarb Wine

Sounds like it’s the good and fancy stuff, right? Not exactly, says Anthony Giglio of Details magazine.

When a wine has ‘Reserve” on the label, it might mean that the wine has been aged a specific amount of time depending on the regulations of the wine region. Many wineries added the term to the label if they had produced cheaper wines. However, nowadays “Reserve” is usually just a marketing ploy.

Giglio explains that only Old World, or European, wine regions regulate what can go on wine bottles. New World regions such as the United States, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa do not have systems for those rules and regulations.

Says Giglio: The term is so misused on American bottles that most of the wine critics and sommeliers ignore it unless we know that the producer has a sense of integrity.

So, what’s your strategy for ordering wine when you go out to eat? Do you pick the cheapest bottle on the menu, or do you aim to impress with the most expensive?

Choose neither of those options, says sommelier Gerald Morgan, Jr. of Simplified Wine. Morgan advises picking the second cheapest wine on the menu. The next cheapest wine is often the best value — it costs the restaurant at least twice as much as the cheapest bottle.

Also consider choosing a wine from a good region. Morgan suggests Argentina, Chile and Washington state. Although, we would add a Finger Lakes wine to that list.

Our wines got top awards at the 2014 New York State Fair Wine Competition. This year Sweet Spot got the Double Gold, and Silvers went to our Honey Wine and Fresh Blueberry Wine. Mon Cheri, our diamond grape wine, took home a Bronze medal.

The New York Cork Report just released a really great breakdown on the Finger Lakes wine industry. They collected their data on more than 100 wineries and almost 2,000 wines from Finger Lakes wine- industry-related websites. The Cork Report admits it’s not the most scientific method, but the info is still pretty interesting about what’s being made and what’s being sold in the region. Some highlights:

The average price of a bottle of wine from the Finger Lakes is $16.15. This makes it one of the better value regions in the country, considering that the average cost of a bottle of wine in the U.S. was $37.62, according to a 2013 study from Wines & Vines quoted by the Cork Report.

Riesling is the top wine in the region. Finger Lakes rieslings have earned plenty of buzz, even from the New York Times. According to the Cork Report, 88 percent of Finger Lakes wineries in their sample produce at least one riesling.

Remember all that moderate wine drinking you’re supposed to do? Those one or two glasses a day you’re supposed to drink to prevent disease? Yeah, well, a new study suggests that resveratrol, the compound found in #red wine with all the purported health benefits, is just a lot of hype.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, concluded there’s little evidence that resveratrol has beneficial effects on a number of health issues. They found no association between #resveratrol, and less cardiovascular disease, inflammation, cancer and increases in longevity.

The study authors do say that other substances found in red wine and other foods, such as dark chocolate and berries, may still have small, positive health effects, so there’s reason to keep drinking.

And, there are these reasons too: A nice glass of wine can bring a smile to your face, lets you unwind after a long day, and, of course, adds to a good laugh with good friends. All secrets to a happy life, if you ask me.

Check out this article from Johns Hopkins for more information about the study.

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